


Baby Sister

by CheekyChick1only



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Crew as Family, F/M, Family, Female Portgas D. Ace, Rule 63, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23698762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheekyChick1only/pseuds/CheekyChick1only
Summary: In their defense, they just wanted Ace to join their crew so badly, they didn't realize that their approach wasn't working. Now though, they were determined to do right by their new baby sister and learn everything about her.Ace wants nothing to do with these idiots. They kidnapped her and are holding her and her crew hostage! So what if Thatch is kind of funny and Marco is kind of handsome, and maybe Whitebeard was a reassuring presence, that didn't mean anything! Right?
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace, Portgas D. Ace & Whitebeard Pirates
Comments: 40
Kudos: 436
Collections: They all need a hug





	1. I am not joining your crew!

It was a peaceful morning on the Moby Dick. There hadn’t been many of those since…acquiring their newest crewmember. Ace seemed to have a habit of beginning the day with an assassination attempt. It was amusing to the crew by now. The first few times it had been an alarming, though quite effective, wake up call to see the would-be assassin throwing herself at the captain.

Marco tilted his head back, enjoying the good weather. The Grand Line was notorious for its weather and he wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. Whitebeard chuckled, glad to see his son in a rare moment of peace. Marco ran himself ragged keeping on top of the goings-on of the ship and he’d been playing babysitter for the last few months as Ace seemed to have something of a soft spot for the commander.

Speaking of Ace, it was odd that the fiery brat hadn’t come by for her usual morning attack. It was probably too much to hope that the girl might finally be giving up her crusade and accepting his offer.

As if reading his mind, and he had to wonder if Marco might be keeping a secret as he did seem to have an uncanny way of just knowing things, Marco quipped, “It’s awfully quiet this morning, yoi.”

“It is,” Whitebeard agreed. “I don’t suppose anyone knows where Ace might be hiding this time? The little brat has a talent for finding all sorts of hiding places that I didn’t know existed.”

Haruta chimed in from her spot in front of Whitebeard’s chair. “Ace tried to sneak into the communications room again this morning.” She frowned. “She seemed really irritated when she saw us there. I thought she was starting to come around a little, but I guess she’s still trying to call for backup,” she said sadly, looking at the ground.

Several of the commanders winced, along with Whitebeard. When he’d first decided to accept Ace as his daughter he’d informed the crew that the only way to get past her defenses and help her to actually heal from all of the darkness they could see in her was to isolate her from her former crew. This enforced one-on-one would help her to bond with them and hopefully make it easier for her to open up faster. It had been something of a surprise when Ace started making attempts to sneak into the communications room, for one thing stealth was not Ace’s strong suit at all, but also because they didn’t think she’d abandon her pride so quickly to call for help. They’d, of course, ensured that Ace had no access to a Den Den. They’d even gone so far as to remove the personal Den Den that they had found in Ace’s belongings.

Ace had been understandably irate when she noticed the absence and her attempts to access the communications room were only slightly less frequent than her assassination attempts. They’d all noticed that the assassination attempts were coming less and less frequently, and they’d all hoped that that meant Ace was starting to come around. Marco and Thatch had even had some somewhat congenial conversations. It was disheartening to know she was still trying to leave.

Before anyone had too much time to dwell on their disappointment they were treated to a rare sight. Ace was storming towards them, that itself wasn’t odd, she’d more or less taken over the entire ship, storming and stomping wherever she pleased, refusing to allow the crew to try and restrict her movements, not that they would have, but she was walking up to Whitebeard without any sign of stealth or trickery. Not once had Ace approached the captain except for her assassination attempts and they had to wonder what had changed and whether or not this was a good sign.

Ace stomped up to Whitebeard, ignoring the bewildered commanders and various crew members. “I need to use a Den Den,” she announced, looking grumpy at having to actually ask for permission.

Whitebeard was taken aback at the demand. For all that Ace was very straightforward and upfront of about just about everything else, the communications room infiltration attempts were the only thing she was secretive about. It was a shock to say the least.

Marco leaned again Whitebeard’s chair, staring at Ace, unimpressed. “What for, yoi?”

Ace glared at the commander. “None of your business!” she shouted.

Marco fixed her with a flat look. “Then no.” And with that he turned back to face Haruta and Thatch, pretending to ignore the swiftly building ire from their resident hothead. Thatch, who could see the look of fury on Ace’s face, decided to step in before the girl could explode. “Look,” he said, in a cajoling tone, wincing when the scorching glare was turned on him, “we just want to know why you need to make a call. We have to make sure you aren’t selling us out to the marines or something.”

Ace looked honestly offended. “I would never do that!” she exclaimed.

Marco huffed a laugh. He did believe her. Ace was just too honest to do something so underhanded, but the fact that she was so offended by the notion amused him. “So, if you’re not plotting our demise then why do you need to make a call so badly, yoi?”

Ace looked like she dearly wanted to snap at him again, but she could see that no one was going to contradict his earlier order and that if she wanted that Den Den then she was going to have to explain herself. Ace gritted her teeth, glaring at the ground in frustration. It probably shouldn’t amuse him as much as it did to see the girl in a temper. It was like watching a house cat try to growl at a lion.

Ace finally closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “I need to call my brother,” she finally admitted, not making eye contact with anyone.

This threw everyone for a loop. They’d looked into Ace before kidnapping her. There’d been no mention of family of any kind. “I didn’t know you had a brother,” Thatch said, shocked.

Ace bared her teeth at him. “There’s something you don’t know about me? Shocking,” she mocked.

Marco had to silently acknowledge the point. They’d learned a lot through tales of her exploits, but she and her crew had been very tight-lipped about any personal details. The Spade pirates had already agreed to join the crew if they could convince Ace, but they had made it very clear they would not do or say anything that would betray their captain. Marco had to admire their loyalty even if it did make things harder for them.

Slowly, considering his words carefully, Marco spoke, “You can call your brother, yoi,” Ace looked up in surprise, looking quite relieved, before he added, “but you need to do it here where we can hear you.”

The relief had died a quick death and he was treated to the same fiery glare he was quickly becoming accustomed to. Before she could start shouting again, he raised his hand, surprised when she actually paused. “As you just pointed out, yoi, we don’t know you very well. You say you want to call your brother, but I can’t take your word for it. So, if you want to make a call, we are going to listen to make sure you don’t do anything regrettable.”

Everyone could see the indecision in Ace’s face. She clearly wanted the Den Den very badly but even they could see that having the crew listen in on the call was a massive preach of privacy. Gently, Marco asked, “Do you want to take a few days to think it over?”

Ace shook her head, defeated. “I usually call at least once a week and he knew I was heading into a fight. I need to call him.”

Thatch and Curiel frowned. If Ace usually called once a week than she had missed, what, 12-13 calls while on the Moby Dick? If her brother had known she was going to fight someone he must be worried sick. Marco, Haruta and Whitebeard, the main enforcers of the isolation policy wanted to squirm a little with guilt.

Swallowing her guilt, Haruta stepped forward, pulling a Den Den out of the pouch at her waist. She usually carried one with her so that her division could easily contact her if they came across something that needed immediate attention. 

Jozu and Blenheim quietly ushered the majority of the crew away from the area. Marco was right about the call needing to be observed for safety reasons, but they could at least allow the meager privacy of limiting the audience to just the commanders.

Ace reached forward and dialed the familiar number, listening with anticipation as it rang. When a feminine voice answered with, “Hello, Party Bar,” she let out a breath of relief. The commanders were a little confused, hadn’t she said she was calling her brother? Was this a trick after all?

“Hi Makino,” Ace said weakly, looking like she was bracing herself. They all watched silently as there was a long pause before that same voice before shouted, “Portgas D. Ace, where have you been?! We were so worried about you! Poor Luffy has been an absolute wreck!”

To their shock, Ace wilted a little at the reprimand. Whoever this was, Ace clearly respected her a great deal. “It’s a long story. I was kind of kidnapped,” there was a shocked gasp on the other end and Ace winced before rushing on, “but I’m fine. I’ve been trying to get to a Den Den to call for weeks and weeks, but it didn’t work out.”

The previously angry voice was now a tone of great concern which made all the Whitebeard’s, who were, however unintentionally, the cause of this woman’s distress. “Oh, Sweetheart, are you alright?”

There was a flush of pink on Ace’s face, who looked both embarrassed and yet distinctly pleased, by the concern. As if remembering her audience, she fixed them with a glare, which was leagues less effective with the blush still on her face, as if daring them to tease her. Ordinarily Thatch and Haruta would have already begun the mocking, but they were too busy feeling guilty.

“I’m fine,” she said, going back to the Den Den. “Is Luffy around?”

The Den Den sighed, the mysterious woman not pressing any further. “He’s upstairs resting. He’s been so upset the last few months; he hasn’t left the bar once waiting for you to call. I’ll go get him.”

Ace looked so guilty and even Marco couldn’t deny that he was feeling bad about keeping her from her brother. He looked at his father and saw that he was feeling the same. He had a distinct feeling Pops was going to offer the hothead an apology after the call. The commanders jumped a little when they heard a scream of “ACE!!!!!!” starting first far away and then getting closer to the Den Den.

Ace smiled, shocking everyone on deck. She was always so angry, always shouting at glaring at people that rumors had started going around about whether or not she could smile. “Hi Luffy,” she said softly, gentle in a way none of them had ever heard before.

“I thought you were dead!” the voice wailed, a sound of pure misery that had several commanders hunching their shoulders, feeling like the most reprehensible criminals in the world. How old was that kid? And they’d made him think his sister was dead all because they were trying to convince her to join their crew.

Ace put her hands on her hips, scoffing, “What have I told you about killing me off like that?” she scolded. “I told you, didn’t I? I am never going to die! I can’t just leave a little crybaby like you on your own.”

Marco looked at the girl with interest. That was certainly a bold claim, stating that she would never die, especially with the way she was throwing herself headlong into danger at seemingly every opportunity. And it seemed a little harsh for her to call the kid a crybaby when he had legitimate concerns she might have been killed.

Ace clearly knew the kid better than Marco did, because that statement stopped the waterworks in their tracks. “I am not a crybaby!” the kid yelled.

Ace stuck out her tongue at the Den Den. “Are too. What do you call what you just did?”

“That’s not fair! I thought Ace was dead! You promised you wouldn’t die and then you were gone just like Sabo!” The tears started again.

Ace looked absolutely stricken. She stared at the Den Den with such guilt, grief, and horror that several of the commanders turned away to allow her what little privacy she could have. Ace crashed down to her knees in front of the Den Den. “No, no no no no. It’s okay Luffy, I’m fine. Calm down, Lulu.”

She spoke quietly to the Den Den, trying to soothe her little brother. They could vaguely here Makino trying to soothe the boy as well. Eventually the crying stopped. “Why did Ace go away?” the boy asked, voice thick from crying. Thatch flinched from the accusation, looking about ready to cry himself.

“I ran into a little trouble,” Ace admitted, eyeing the commanders who were still present, “I’ve been trying to take care of it but it’s complicated.”

“Did you fight that Giant Guy?”

“Yeah,” Ace said. “I did.”

“And you beat him up?” Luffy asked, sounding curious.

“Not exactly,” she winced.

The Den Den’s eyes went wide. “Giant Guy is even stronger than Ace?” Luffy sounded absolutely shocked, making Izou and Vista coo over how adorable he sounded.

Ace made a face at that, clearly not willing to acknowledge the truth of that statement. “Well apparently they want me to join their crew, so they kidnapped me.”

“You can’t join their crew!” Luffy shouted, surprising many of the commanders. Did the kid not like them or something? “You said you were gonna be a captain and that’s why you won’t join my crew. If you’re going to join someone’s crew it should be mine!”

Marco grinned, hearing Whitebeard’s soft chuckle. This kid was a hoot.

“I’m not joining anyone’s crew,” Ace said, annoyed. “Especially not someone who thinks kidnapping someone is a good first impression.”

The commanders winced at that. Ace did have a point there. They might have all the best intentions for their new crewmate, but she definitely had a point.

“Are you trying to kill them?” Luffy asked curiously. Several of the commanders stared at the Den Den in shock. How the heck had the kid come to that conclusion? And why did he sound so unbothered by the idea of his sister trying to kill them.

“Only the Captain,” Ace said, like it was no big deal. “We’re on his ship so I can’t get as creative as I’d like. Options are kind of limited.”

She considered everything she’d done so far to not be creative? What exactly had this girl been planning?

“Shishishi,” Luffy laughed. “It’s just like when you were trying to kill me!”

WHAT!? Everyone stared at the girl in shock. She’d thus far been the perfect image of the loving big sister. Had she really tried to kill her little brother?

Ace grumbled. “I wasn’t trying to kill you; I was trying to make you leave me alone. Killing you probably would have been way easier.”

“Probably,” Luffy agreed cheerfully.

There was a long pause before Ace, clearly reluctant, said, “I need to go now. I don’t know when I’ll be able to call again.”

“Ok,” Luffy said, happy as ever, not worried at all. Before Ace could hang up Luffy shouted, “I almost forgot!”

Ace, too used to Luffy’s antics to jump the way the Whitebeards did, asked, “Forgot what?”

“Gramps came by a couple days ago.”

To their shock, Ace went absolutely rigid, sounding actually fearful when she responded, “You didn’t tell him I was missing, did you?”

There was no response and Ace looked even more terrified. “You didn’t tell him where I was, did you?”

More silence. Ace buried her head in her hands. “I’m going to die. I always knew it’d be Gramps, but I thought I’d have more time.”

Marco frowned, concerned. Who was this ‘Gramps’ that Ace was talking about? He exchanged a look with Pops, who was equally as concerned by Ace’s uncharacteristic fear.

“How come I don’t here Deuce?” Luffy asked, only now noticing the lack of anyone else’s voice.

“They took my crew away,” Ace said, shooting a glare in Whitebeard’s direction. “They’re on a different ship right now.”

“But if Deuce isn’t there then who hugs your bad thoughts away?” Luffy sounded upset at this revelation.

There was a brief pause before Thatch, Fossa and Haruta burst out laughing and Marco tried to hide his chuckle behind a cough at the frankly adorable question.

Ace looked incredibly embarrassed. “Please stop talking,” she begged. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

The call ended after that. Ace turned to face the commanders, valiantly ignoring her red-tinged cheeks. To their shock Ace bowed and said, “Thank you for the Den Den. It was much appreciated.”

“How old was that kid?” Thatch asked, overcoming his giggles.

Ace glared at him suspiciously. “He’s fifteen.”

Rakuyo laughed. “He certainly sounds like a handful. I’m surprised you never mentioned him.”

Ace glared at him. “Am I supposed to mention family to my kidnappers?”

Jozu crossed his arms, irritated. “Look, brat, we’ve offered you a place in our crew, a place in our family. We’ve been quite patient with you considering the way you spit in our faces every day by ignoring our attempts to reach out and trying to kill Pops. You want to be ungrateful, fine, but the least you can do is be polite about it.”  
The tension in the air was thick as the two glared at each other, neither willing to back down. 

“You know, for people who claim to want me to be family you certainly have no regard for my wishes, my opinions, my feelings or my autonomy. I told you I don’t want to join your crew and rather than let me go you’ve separated me from the crew I built, taken away my ship which has been my home for months and you expect me to just be fine with all of it. I didn’t ask for any of this and rather than accept that you’ve all just continued shoving your desires in my face and down my throat. I don’t owe you anything. If I’m such an annoyance to have around then let me go.”

With that Ace spun around and stormed off, ignoring all the gawking bystanders.

Marco sighed. Things couldn’t keep going like this. He could tell that Ace was on the edge about them, they just needed something to finally help her decide to accept their offer.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
“Mind if I sit?”

Ace looked up to see Marco standing not far from where she was dangling her legs overboard, watching the sunset. “It’s your ship,” she said dismissively, returning her gaze to the ocean she loved so much.

Marco sat down, surprisingly graceless, with a grunt. “I have a feeling that we owe you a bit of an apology, yoi,” the blonde man said, capturing her attention. She turned to face him, raising an eyebrow.

“You are not the first person we’ve recruited this way,” Marco said, leaning his back against the rails. “This is actually how Pops recruited me,” he said with a laugh.  
“Really,” Ace said, shocked.

“Oh yeah,” Marco grinned, before it dropped. “You see, before all of this I was a slave.” He didn’t acknowledge her shock and continued on. “I had already eaten my fruit by that point, but I didn’t know what it was or how to use it. All anyone knew was that I could heal anything which meant my ‘owners’ never had to worry about accidentally killing me during a punishment. Pops found me on that island, and he rescued me. But I’d been a slave so long I’d been conditioned to fear everything and not to trust any shred of kindness. And I’d seen what he’d done to the nobles and I was afraid of him. He took me with him onto his ship and for a while I thought maybe he was my new owner, but he always denied it. I didn’t trust him and the longer it went without him hurting me the more scared I became. I’d learned that it was always so much worse if they had time to plan and get creative. So, I was becoming more and more tense and nervous and after a while I started getting angry. I had always known where I stood and where the rules were while a slave, I didn’t know what these people wanted from me and I started to get angry and eventually I snapped. I lashed out at Pops without thinking. Afterwards I was so horrified, knowing that such rebellion was grounds for extreme punishment. But Pops just laughed, he was relieved to see I still had so much spirit left after all I had been through.”

Marco turned to look Ace dead in the eye. “A lot of people make jokes about Pops and our crew. They think our family is a joke or a lie and they mock it. But Pops always knew, right from the start, that what he wanted when he set sail wasn’t fame or wealth, he wanted a family. You know Gol D. Roger?”

Ace was thrown by the abrupt subject change and also quite tense about the topic in general. “Yes, everyone does.”

Marco smirked. “Before his execution he came to visit us. He offered to tell Pops how to find Raftel.”

Ace was shocked. That man had offered One Piece to Whitebeard?

“Pops said no, yoi. He had the treasure he wanted, and he had no desire to search for riches that mattered little to him.”

Marco leaned back again, no longer staring. Ace leaned her face against the rails. Where was Marco going with all of this?

“Pops seems to have this way of just knowing when someone needs a family. He knew it with me and with several of the rest of the crew. Sometimes someone is just lonely and could really use a family in their lives. Sometimes they’re hurt or scarred by their past and need love and support to heal.” 

He didn’t move in any way, but Ace knew she was once again the center of his attention. “You are hardly the first pirate to try and come after Pops’ head. Depending on what kind of person they are determines how we respond. Some of them are genuinely terrible people and we wipe them out. Sometimes they’re just arrogant and think they are ready to take on the big names. Those ones we just kick their asses and send them on their way. You were different. You were absolutely exhausted after fighting Jinbei but the first thing you did was protect your crew from a perceived threat. And that wall never wavered for a second. That was enough to get Pops’ attention and approval, but that alone would not have earned you an offer to join our crew.”

Confused, Ace turned to face Marco. “But he offered me a place,” she said, confused.

Marco smiled warmly, “Yes, he did, yoi. What you have to understand is our crew is huge. And we’ve had people leave to start families or felt they were too old to keep sailing. The world is full of people who used to be part of our crew or know someone who is. Those people are still loyal to us and they pass us any news they get. This leads to a huge information network. We were aware of you almost immediately after you set out. Your strength was impressive, but we also heard about your kindness and good nature. Did you know Izou is from Wano?” 

Ace blushed, knowing what he was referencing. Marco huffed a laugh. “Izou was practically gushing when he heard about how you were with Tama. We knew before you got to us what kind of person you were. We were expecting to slap you down and send you on your way. But then we saw you. And its plain for anyone to see that you’re hurting.”

Marco cut through her automatic protests with a glare. “You glare and growl at us like a bear with it’s leg caught in a trap. We can see that you want a family, but for some reason you think you can’t have one. We’d hoped that we could show you that we wanted to be there for you. That’s why we took your crew away. If they were around you would stay with them, there would be no incentive for you to communicate with the rest of us, to learn to trust us. We’ve recruited a lot of people this way, but that made us complacent. We know how this usually goes and we’ve all just been waiting for you to fall in line. But you are, by far, the most stubborn person I have ever met. You’ve been fighting us the entire way and we’ve been ignoring that because we knew that we had your best interest at heart. But somewhere along the line we forgot to explain any of that to you, so you were left with a bunch of people just expecting things from you. And we do owe you an apology for that. We should have told you why we wanted you to join our crew and what that would mean. Instead we just assumed you would fall into it the way we all did. And that’s not fair. I remember what it was like to be left floundering, not sure what it was that people wanted from me and just wanting to understand what was going on.”

She was not going to cry, dammit! Ace always tried not to lie to herself. After the initial annoyance of everyone just expecting her to be okay with everything, she’d begun to observe the crew and she knew that that camaraderie, that easy affection and trust, was something she wanted, badly. But she could never accept it. Whitebeard and Roger had been enemies, how would this crew to finding out she was his daughter? Of course, they wouldn’t be able to accept her! She’d be a sitting duck when they turned on her, and she wasn’t about to open her heart to them when she knew how it would end. But if Roger had really offered to tell Whitebeard about Raftel, were they really enemies? That sounded more like friendship than anything. She was so confused.

Ace turned away from Marco, thoughts whirling in her head, a mile a minute. “I need to think,” she said quietly. She felt a light, warm pressure on her head, was he ruffling her hair? before Marco stood up. He gave her a warm look before softly bidding her a good night.


	2. The Spades Arrive

It was a little after noon the next day when Ace sought Marco out. There was no indication in her face about whether or not she’d made any kind of decision about what they’d talked about the night before.

As straightforward as ever, Ace announced, “I need to talk to my crew. I’m not about to make any decisions without talking to them first.”

Marco smiled. Even people he’d considered siblings for years still usually asked for things, they didn’t demand it like she did. It amused him to see her audacity and complete lack of regard for things like titles or rank. “I thought you might want to see them. After we talked last night, I called our other ship, they’re being transported here. We’re lifting the isolation so there’s no need to keep them away. We weren’t too far apart, and they left quite early so they should be here soon.”

Ace looked surprised before she thanked him and left. Several crew members swarmed him afterwards, wanting to know how he’d managed to get Ace to speak to him without glaring or shouting.

Ace pouted a little when she heard that last part. She didn’t yell all the time. And none of them should blame her for being, quite reasonably, pissed off over being kidnapped and held prisoner. She shook her head, clearing the thoughts away. Right now, she needed to plan what she was going to say to her crew. Most of them hadn’t been pirates before she recruited them, and they’d only agreed to follow her because they trusted her. It was completely unfair for her to expect them to just follow her every order without any kind input.  
So much time was spent worrying about what would happen that before she knew it, there was a cry of “Sail ho!” and her crew were boarding the Moby Dick.

It was such a relief and joy to see these crazy people who’d agreed to follow her that Ace couldn’t contain the blinding grin and she rushed forward. Apparently, they were just as overjoyed as they all swarmed her with shouts of “Captain!”

Everyone watched the reunion with a soft smile, happy to see their resident hothead so happy for a change. 

The Spades quickly took a step back from their impromptu group hug and started bombarding her with questions. “Are you okay?” “What took you so long, didn’t you know how worried we were?” and “Have they been taking care of you?” were the most common they could here.

To everyone’s shock, one of the men walked forward and actually pulled up Ace’s shirt to take a look under it. The Whitebeard’s were so shocked that Ace (or even her fiercely loyal crew) didn’t immediately deck the guy that they didn’t react at first, but Izou and Haruta looked absolutely irate and ready to kill the guy with their bare hands.

The man, completely ignoring the death stares and shocked looks just tsked at what he saw. “These people aren’t feeding you at all,” he shook his head with disgust. “You’ve let these people starve you!”

Thatch immediately protested, furious at the implication. “We did no such thing! Ace—”

Ace cut him off. “I refused meals Kal. I was trying to make a point about not being a part of the crew. I stole a bit and I fished a lot.”

“Bah,” Kal spat. “You wait right there. You’re lucky I’ve been cooking up a feast for our reunion.” He turned on his heel and stormed back to the ship, dragging a few people with him.

Ace sighed, turning to Deuce, “He’s not going to let that go for a long time, is he?”

Deuce just fixed her with a look. “No, we aren’t. I have to say I’m pretty surprised. I knew you were stubborn, but I didn’t think you could last where food was involved,” he teased.

Ace just grumbled. Everyone watched at the Spades returned carrying an enormous amount of food. Even Thatch, who routinely led the cooking for the massive parties the crew enjoyed, was shocked to see how much food the crew had produced in only a few hours time.

Kal turned to his captain, pointed at the ground in front of the food pile, and tersely ordered, “Sit!”

Ace complied readily, looking very eager. The Whitebeards watched in shock, disgust and horror as Ace lifted an entire flank of meat, put the entire thing in her mouth, and swallowed it whole, bone and all. They watched the humongous pile of food swiftly disappear.

“Where’s it all going?” Thatch whispered in horrified awe.

“I don’t know,” Blenheim whispered back, staring in shock.

Marco, pushing past him knee-jerk reaction of disgust, addressed what he felt was the more pressing issue. “Is this how much she usually eats?” he asked Kal, hoping for a negative response.

Kal nodded, frowning at him. “This is a little more than usual since she’s not been eating properly for the last three months. She normally eats around ten to fifteen times what most people consider a generous serving.”

This floored everyone listening. Thatch took it the hardest. He looked as if someone had just murdered a puppy in front of him. “You mean we really have been starving her?”

Ace paused from her eating, feeling very guilty at the self-loathing present in that question. She needed to nip this in the bud before any of her crew started getting any ideas. “You did not starve me,” she said, voice firm and absolutely unyielding. “You’ve all made it abundantly clear that I am welcome in the galley and you’ve tried to bring me meals and haven’t stopped me from stealing food. You had no way of knowing how much I eat, and I didn’t want to tell you. That’s not your fault.”

Thatch didn’t look convinced but didn’t press further. Marco, both wanting to give Thatch a break and also being genuinely concerned, asked, “How much weight have you lost since being here? If you’ve been missing out on so much food, then you should really be checked out by one of the doctors.”

With a smarmy grin Deuce chirped up, “Oh, don’t worry, Commander, I’ve already checked her out just fine.”

All of the Spades let out groans of disgust, but Ace just belted out a deep laugh. “Ah, you say the sweetest things, Honeybun.”

Even more groans. “Anytime, Hot Stuff,” Deuce replied.

“I definitely didn’t miss that,” Saber muttered.

Ace grinned at them and went back to her food. The crew refocused their attention on the Whitebeards, who were starting to feel a little uneasy under the sudden scrutiny.

“So,” Deuce said, all traces of his former humor erased, “it looks like you all finally got your heads out of your asses and actually talked to the Captain.”

“We did,” Marco said evenly. He wasn’t offended or even surprised by the question. The Spades had proved extremely loyal and he knew that they were unhappy with the way the Whitebeards had gone about Ace’s recruitment.

“About time,” Deuce snorted. “I was starting to think I was going to have to resort to plan B if things kept going the way they were.”

Not liking the sound of that, Marco asked, “And what is Plan B?”

Deuce shrugged, nonchalantly. “I was going to blackmail Shanks into helping us.”

That brought everyone up short. Ace even looked mildly surprised and turned to keep an ear on the conversation while she ate.

“And how exactly were you planning on going about that?” Whitebeard asked, amused at the sheer nerve of this brat’s crew. It’d been a while since he’d last met such a group of people.

“Well you know Luffy, right?” When the commanders nodded Deuce continued, “Well, Shanks is kind of Luffy’s hero. He spent some time at their island years ago and they really bonded. Shanks loves that kid to death.”

Marco was both disgusted and angry. “You were going to threaten Luffy?” He could feel the other commanders growing angry as well. They might have only learned about the kid yesterday, but he still felt protective and he couldn’t believe that a member of Ace’s crew would be so callous.

To their surprise, Deuce burst into laughter. “By the Sea, no!” he laughed. “Have you met my captain? Shanks would never find a big enough piece of me to take any anger out on after she was done ripping me to pieces for threatening her brother.”

He was still laughing as the commanders calmed down. Marco was still confused though. “Then how were you planning to blackmail him? Red Hair might be an idiot, but he’s hardly a pushover.”

Deuce looked up at him. “You have no idea how much he loves that kid. We met up with Shanks not long before we ran into all of you. I’m pretty sure they were going to kick our ass until Ace mentioned being Luffy’s sister and then we were invited to spend the night and have a party. So, I was going to use that. Shanks might be Luffy’s hero, but Ace is his sister. I would have threatened to call Luffy and tell him that Ace was in trouble and that Shanks refused to help his big sister.”

Marco gaped at him for a second before bursting into laughter. That was evilly brilliant. If Shanks really loved Luffy so much, he would want to avoid disappointing him. And how much more disappointed could a kid be then realizing his hero had refused to help his sister? It was the perfect sort of blackmail and exactly the kind of thing that would be super effective against Shanks. 

Still laughing, Marco said, “Shanks might be willing to attack Pops to avoid upsetting the kid, but his crew would never let him. Benn would never let that happen.”

Saber scoffed. “That whole damn crew loves that kid. They’re just as fond of him and most of them kind of like the captain too. Said any friend of Luffy’s was a friend of theirs.”

That stunned them. Shanks might act irresponsibly on occasion, but several members of his crew were much more practical and usually kept the man in check. How could a kid that hadn’t even set sail yet have possibly made such a big impression?

When they asked that the Spades just laughed. “There’s just something about that kid that makes you want to believe in him. We’ve only talked to him over the Den Den and he’s even got us going. Shanks said something about betting an arm on the kid, whatever that means.”

That absolutely floored the commanders. They could remember meeting up with Shanks almost a decade ago after he’d lost his arm and he’d mentioned a kid that he was sure was going to be big someday and that he’d lost his arm to protect him. That was Ace’s brother Luffy? 

Finally, though still way too soon considering the amount of food that had been present, Ace finished eating. Ace stood up and turned to face everyone. “Before we go any further, I need to talk to the commanders and Captain in private.”

Confused about what Ace might want now, they obliged, moving towards the meeting room, the Spades following diligently, glaring suspiciously at the Whitebeards, which only added to the building tension.

“Alright,” Ace said, “I’m not going to beat around the bush. There is something very important that you all need to know before I can join the crew. It’s a big deal and I don’t want to just sit around wondering how you all would react to it. So, I’m going to tell you now so if you want to get rid of me, we can just get it over with.”

Marco and Whitebeard exchanged worried looks. What on earth could be so important?

Ace took a deep breath, not really able to believe that she was about to trust her biggest secret to a crew that she barely knew. Deuce reached out and gently squeezed her wrist, offering her his silent support. “My father was Gol D. Roger.”

Silence. At first no one really knew how to react to that bit of news. It was Thatch who inevitably broke the quiet. “Damn,” he said with a low whistle. Some of the other commanders, though still looking a bit surprised, chuckled at the understatement.

Whitebeard looked at Ace with newfound understanding. No wonder she had so much pain in her past. “I thought you were going to tell us something important,” he scoffed, hiding his amusement at the blatant shock on Ace’s face, “all you’ve done is tell us the name of your father. All of us are children of the sea. And anyone who sails under my flag is _my_ child.”

Ace looked completely overwhelmed when she saw the nods of agreement from the rest of the commanders. “I thought you hated Roger!” she shouted, unable to say anything else.

“I do,” Blenheim said casually, drawing her attention. “But he’d been dead for almost twenty years. And you aren’t him, anyway.”

Whitebeard smiled at Blenheim, proud of his son’s words.

Marco looked at Ace, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You really thought we would attack you for this?” he observed, everyone present seeing the flinch that Ace tried to hide at the statement. “Why? I told you that Pops and Roger were sort of friends. And we’ve always been very vocal about not caring where someone comes from. You know we like you, why were you so afraid of telling us?” 

There was no recrimination of accusation in the tone, just a simple request for understanding. It was that fact that allowed Ace to find her voice. “My Gramps told me about my father when I was five. I grew up in the forest, pretty isolated from the rest of the world. He told me that my father was a bad person and that I needed to keep our relationship a secret, but I didn’t really understand why. So, one night I went out to a nearby bar. I chose a time where there wouldn’t be a lot of people around and the ones who were would be so drunk, they wouldn’t remember anything in the morning. So, I went up to someone and asked, ‘What if Gold Roger had a kid?’”

All of the commanders grimaced. That would not have ended well. Whitebeard closed his eyes and silently grieved for the pain this girl had gone through so young.

Ace laughed humorlessly. “They were very descriptive. ‘Such a child would be a demon’ ‘the child of a monster would be a monster’ ‘the kid should be drowned at birth’ were only some of the answers I received.”

Deuce wrapped his arms around Ace’s midriff, pulling her back so she was leaning against his chest. Marco was barely able to contain the protective fury surging up. Thatch, Fossa and Jozu were less successful and were visibly angry.

Ace looked at them, steel in her eyes. “I don’t trust easily. If you’re serious about wanting to be family then this is something you need to accept. I’m not going to bother getting comfortable and building bonds with everyone only to turn around and get my ass kicked to the curb. I’d rather know now, one way or another.”

Whitebeard stood from his chair, catching everyone’s attention. He calmly walked over to Ace who was visibly nervous, though she was trying to hide it. He reached out a hand as he regarded the girl with fond eyes. “Run wild with us,” he said, Ace’s eyes widening at the familiar words, “Our flag will be yours, and I will call you my daughter.”

Ace could only stare at the hand with glassy eyes, stunned to her core. Finally, she reached out a shaking hand and placed it in his. “Yeah,” she said, a little teary. “Okay.”

The commanders let out a loud cheer, overjoyed at the acceptance. The Spades let out a whoop as well, happy to see their beloved captain so happy.


	3. How Deuce Met Ace

Morning was greeted by the groans and protests of hundreds of pirates who’d decided, in a moment of drunken brilliance, that it would be great fun to have a group sleepover on the deck to celebrate their newest additions to the crew. This decision was bitterly regretted as dawn broke, aggravating hangovers and disturbing previously peaceful sleep.

Luckily, there were several members of the fourth division who had not indulged as much as their siblings and breakfast was already being prepared. Ace blearily sat up from where she lay in a cuddle pile of a mix of the former Spades and current Whitebeards. She winced a little at the sting in her back. After accepting the offer to join the crew, Izou had immediately dragged her away to get Pops’ mark tattooed. She gratefully accepted the mug of water that was handed to her by an amused Marco. The water helped a little, but Ace was still quite grumpy as she viciously muttered, “Can’t someone turn out the damn light?”

Marco laughed, not caring in the least as several crew members grabbed their aching heads at the sudden noise. “That’s the sun, yoi,” he pointed out, amused.

Ace turned to look at the sky, wincing at the light. Whatever she saw seemed to please her as she nodded. “It’s going to rain soon, no more evil sun to bother us.”

Several people blinked in confusion, looking at the sky. There were hardly any clouds, why in the world would Ace think it would rain? It was a beautiful, if scorchingly hot, day.

Deuce came walking up to them, clearly none the worse for wear from the previous night’s activities. “Don’t question her,” he said, seeing their looks. “Ace has crazy intuition when it comes to the weather. She can tell when storms are coming or what kind of weather an upcoming island has beyond any reasonable means of knowing such a thing. We were at a desert island and dying of the heat and she told us to put our winter gear on. We told her she was out of her mind and she just shrugged and said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” And then fifteen minutes later out of freaking nowhere we get hit with this blizzard and there we all are, barely dressed and covered in sweat. It was the most ridiculous thing.” Deuce shook his head.

Marco looked at Ace, considering. He’d wondered why Ace had been wearing a log pose when they kidnapped her. Was she the navigator? Those kinds of instincts were in high demand for a sea-faring crew.

Deuce turned to face Ace again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an orange bottle. “Here. I’m not even going to bother asking if you went to the infirmary for meds, so I know you’ve been off them for months.”

Ace gratefully took out a pill and swallowed it quickly. Marco’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the bottle. They’d clearly disrupted Ace’s medication by taking her, what were the pills for? Hopefully it wasn’t anything too serious since she’d not gone to them for help and Bay hadn’t reported anything missing from the infirmary.

“And lastly,” Deuce said with a dramatic flair, reaching into the bag on his back, “I present to you, your greatest treasure!” With a flourish, Deuce pulled out…a book? Ace didn’t really seem like the type to enjoy reading much. Maybe he meant it as a joke?

Apparently not because Ace lit up at the sight. “I was so worried it had gotten destroyed!” she proclaimed. “Thank you, Snookems.”

“Anything for my queen,” Deuce said pompously. “For though we call ourselves Spades, to me you shall always be the Queen of Hearts, for you are the Queen of my Heart.”

Ace blinked at him, along with several members of the crew. “You’ve been holding on to that one for a while, haven’t you?”

Deuce laughed, “You have no idea.”

Ace laid back down, she was too tired and hung over to continue fighting the lure of the sun warmed deck. She wasn’t the only one. Most of the crew were continuing to relax on deck, just taking more care to protect their eyes from the evil sun. Deuce decided to follow her lead and slumped down, leaning against Ace, as he often did, but immediately recoiled with a hiss. “Damn, Mama, tone it down, will you?”

“Sorry, Snuggle Muffin,” Ace said, distracted, stretching out and enjoying the sun, unbothered by the heat.

Izou rolled his eyes, waving his fan back and forth, trying to cool down. It had been a bit of a surprise for the crew when the Spades were allowed back in contact with their former captain to notice the outrageous flirting and pet names between the captain and former first mate. It wouldn’t have been so odd, merely excessive, if not for the fact that both flatly denied being in any kind of relationship.

Deuce carefully laid down, nestling his head into the curve of Ace’s back, making sure not to cover Pops’ mark. Apparently, the temperature was more bearable this time because he patted Ace’s head with a condescending, “Thanks, Sugar Lips.”

Thatch rolled over to stare at the two with interest. Many of the crew wondered how the two had come to have such an odd relationship, but no one had ever really cared enough to take the time to ask. “Why do you guys do that?” he asked, voice curious, if a little lazy.

“Hmm?” Ace hummed, not understanding the question. 

“The pet names. You guys call each other the weirdest things. You don’t do that with anyone else in your crew,” Thatch said.

Ace laughed, jostling Deuce in the process.

Deuce grins, tilting Ace’s stolen hat so that he had some cover on his face. “That’s actually a pretty funny story.”

Haruta popped up at that, “I like stories!” she crowed, getting several people’s interest, including Pops. Seeing that they now had an audience Deuce closed his eyes, getting comfortable.

“So, it started back when we first met. My family was pretty well off. We weren’t nobility,” Deuce stressed, “but my parents sure wanted to be. And I was ‘lucky’ enough that this noble girl I’d known growing up fancied herself in love with me. I’d always made it pretty clear I wasn’t interested in her, but that girl could not take a hint. My parents didn’t care, all they saw was an opportunity to become nobles. I managed to delay them by training to become a doctor, I argued that before I could even think of a relationship I’d need to be able to provide for my family. That worked for a little while, but then I came home one day, and they told me that they’d arranged everything and that I’d be getting married in a month.”

The crew was shocked. One month’s notice for marriage? That was crazy! But how did Ace fit into that?

“I was so angry I stormed out of the house and I went to the beach. I was ranting and raving and cursing, I was so mad. I only stopped when I heard someone laughing. I turned and saw this idiot,” he saw, nudging Ace with his elbow, neatly blocking the retaliatory blow, “I was so embarrassed and I started apologizing because I wasn’t raised to swear like that in front of a lady. But then I heard my ‘fiancée’ screeching my name, looking for me, and I must have made a face because Ace realized it was her and just as she came around the corner Ace leaped into my arms and kissed me.”

Marco and Thatch’s jaws dropped. They could see the shit-eating grin on Ace’s face and the way Deuce was grinning at the memory. “Once my bride-to-be was in full view Ace pulled back and grabbed my hand, pulling it to her stomach and said, loud as could be, ‘Did you tell your parents about the baby?’” Deuce looked at the crews dumbfounded faces and laughed. “That’s what I thought! I thought, oh this girl has to have me confused with someone else, but when I started to say something she just whispered, ‘Oh, so you did want to get married then?’ and I realized what she was doing. My fiancée came storming up, demanding to know who Ace was and I panicked, realizing I didn’t know her name and rather than just make something up I said she was my dearest Cuddlebug. They both looked at me like I was an idiot for a minute but then Ace turned to her and said that I was the father of her baby and that she was coming to pick me up so her parents could meet the Stud Muffin that had impregnated their sweet baby girl. She also said that I would probably be living with them from now on because her pregnancy hormones were just out of control and she couldn’t bear to have her ‘hot hunk of man meat’ away for too long.”

The crew were now staring at the two in plain disbelief. Marco pinched the bridge of his nose. He could very easily see those two idiots doing something like this all too easily.  
“Well my fiancée storms off, crying about how I’d betrayed her and I started to feel bad when Ace wraps her arms around my neck, hoisting herself up so her legs are wrapped around my waist and I hear a shriek behind me. I looked down at Ace and asked if it was really necessary to antagonize her like that, and she just looks at me, totally innocent, and says, ‘What? Bitch was after my man!’ And we just kind of stared at each other for a minute and then we were both on the ground laughing our asses off.”

Izou was just staring at them in shock. Deuce continued, “Eventually I realized that I had just screwed my life up completely when Ace got up, brushed herself off, and said to be on the ship in an hour. I just stared at her, completely confused, and she said, ‘Hey you knocked me up, you need to take responsibility for this, Honeybun.’ I just stared at her and, realizing she was serious, I did the single most reckless thing I’ve ever done. I told her I wasn’t going anywhere near that she-devil and to get me off that island. I ran after her all the way to the dock, and we were just casting off when my parents appeared with the girl and they were screaming at me to come back this instant. I shouted at them that my Kitten needed my full attention and that I needed to provide for my new family. I don’t think I’d ever seen my mother speechless before. After we were out of sight I just started laughing again. When I calmed down, I turned to Ace and asked if she was really pregnant.”

Deuce shifted to glare at his former captain. “She said no, and then informed me that I was now a pirate. After everything that had just happened all I could think was ‘sounds about right’ and we went from there. When we were at the next island where we recruited Biggy, Ace went to introduce him to me when we kind of realized we didn’t know each other’s names.” Deuce looked a little sheepish under their incredulous stares. “We’d continued using pet names so much, it never even occurred to me that we never actually introduced ourselves. And then when we found out our names were so similar; we made all kinds of card related jokes for ages. Biggy just told us we were idiots and went with it. We’d been using the nicknames so long, it felt way more natural than our names at that point, so we just kept going. And most of the crew just went with it, occasionally using them too.”

Marco just kind of stared at the two for a while before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. Why couldn’t anything ever be normal around Ace? He’d been expecting some kind of story of a failed relationship that had left behind a habit of embarrassing pet names, not…whatever that was.

Ace didn’t even look up from where she was laying with her head pillowed on her arms. “The crew likes to get involved. I don’t think any of them really call me by name. A lot of them refer to me as the Deck Master or even just the Lady. But other than that, they like to keep a list of nicknames we’ve used. It’s a bit of a competition to see who can go the longest without repeating any names which is why they get a little weird and why there’s so many of them.”

Haruta laughed. “I want in on that,” she said. That sounded hilarious!

Ace smiled at Haruta. “I think Smalls is the one who has the list so talk to him. There are bets on which of us will win the next streak.”

That was all they needed to hear. If there was one thing a Whitebeard pirate loved, it was a good bet.


	4. Narcolepsy and Gramps

It was several days before any of the crew had a chance to try and bond with Ace or any of the Spades. True to Ace’s prediction, the hot, sunny day had given way to rain. What she hadn’t shared was that the rain would turn into a horrible cyclone that refused to let up for days. The crew had run themselves ragged trying to keep up with the storm. There was hardly a spare moment to rest, let alone try and hold a conversation.

Thankfully, yesterday they had finally made their way out of danger. Never one to miss out on an opportunity to relax, Whitebeard had ordered everyone to take a break. The fourth division used this as an opportunity to whip up a feast. With everyone so focused on the storm they had been limited to easily cooked food that could be eaten quickly.   
They were anxious to get back to spoiling their family with their more delicate masterpieces.

In celebration of the finally clear weather, the feast was happening outside. Thatch was leading several of his division in grilling meats while the desserts and such were being brought from the kitchen. 

Ace was laying face down on the deck, uncomfortably close to the railing. Many of the crew had their eyes on her. It wasn’t a rule per-se, but common sense usually meant that devil fruit users tended to avoid the sides of the ship. She was writing in the book that Deuce had brought her. Was that a journal? The rest of the Spades were lounging about, not seeing this as strange behavior in any way. 

Marco walked up to them and plopped down next to them. He glanced at the book and was surprised to see that Ace wasn’t writing after all, she was drawing. On the page was a pretty good rendition on the beach where Ace and Jinbei had fought.

“I didn’t know you could draw,” Marco commented, surprised. Everyone nearby was surprised too. They were trying not to be obvious about it, but it was clear that everyone was listening, trying to learn about their newest member.

Ace looked over at Marco, looking mildly disgruntled. “It’s pretty rude to just look at someone’s stuff, you know.”

Marco nodded, chagrined. “You’re right. I came over here to ask what you were writing. I should have asked instead of just looking, yoi. I apologize.”

Ace nodded in acceptance, going back to the book. “I get it,” she acknowledged, “but don’t do it again.”

Marco nodded. There was no point in asking now. Instead he changed the subject. “How are you settling in, yoi? Not the best first week,” Marco laughed, “but also not the worst.”

Ace hummed, laughing too. “I don’t mind bad weather. My brothers and I always had to fight nature to survive and get stronger.”

“Brothers?” Marco asked, confused. “You have more that just Luffy?” Why hadn’t she mentioned anyone else?

Ace tensed, and so did the Spades. Clearly, Marco had touched a nerve. Ace blew out a shaky breath. “I used to,” she said quietly. 

Everyone tensed up. Shit. That was a big nerve to hit.

“Sorry,” Marco said quietly, mindful of the tense atmosphere.

Ace’s hand went up to the strange tattoo on her arm that they’d noticed when she stopped wearing a shirt after getting Pops’ mark. A couple people had commented on how weird it was to get a tattoo of your own name (and misspelling it too!) but Ace had never offered and explanation. Her fingers stroked along the crossed out “S”. “His name was Sabo.”

Marco inhaled sharply. He and the commanders had discussed Ace’s call to Luffy after the fact. They’d speculated on who this “Sabo” had been that had supposedly gone away. Learning he was a brother they had both lost only made them feel even guiltier than before.

Ace could see the guilt brewing and changed the subject. “So, what do you people do for fun around here? Other than get black out drunk at parties,” she teased.

Marco smirked. “There’s always something going on somewhere. Thatch and Haruta are always planning some kind of prank, there’s usually a poker game going on somewhere, Izou’s always looking for people to help him out as a model for clothes he’s making. It’s just a matter of asking the right person.”

Ace nodded, looking intrigued. “I guess with such a big crew there needs to be a lot of options. Does anybody—”

Whatever Ace might have said next was completely derailed as her head dropped to the deck with a loud bang that drew everyone’s attention.

“Shit,” Marco said, reaching forward to check what had happened. He started to panic a little when he saw she was unconscious. He started to pick her up, intending to take her to the infirmary, it was not normal to just pass out mid-sentence like that, when Saber reached over to shoo him off.

“The Lady is fine, commander. This just happens sometimes.”

Several of the Spades nodded, drawing confused and slightly disturbed looks from the growing crowd. “This is a reoccurring thing?” Marco asked, incredulous.

Deuce nodded. “Yeah. The Queen has narcolepsy. This is just a sleep attack.” When he saw the looks of confusion, he rolled his eyes. “I’ll let her explain when she wakes up.”

It was a pretty awkward fifteen minutes as they waited for Ace to wake. When she did, it was with no warning whatsoever. She jerked up as suddenly as she’d fallen, continuing her sentence as if nothing had happened. “—do crafts of something?”

It took longer than necessary for Marco to remember what they’d been discussing. When Ace saw the confusion and the larger crowd she sighed. “I fell asleep, didn’t I?”

“Yep,” Deuce said, patting her on the shoulder sympathetically.

“Does that happen a lot?” Thatch asked, sounding unsure.

Ace sighed. “Yeah. I just fall asleep, doesn’t matter what I’m doing.”

Thatch burst out laughing, several members of the crew joining in. “That’s hilarious!”

The Spades shot the chef venomous looks, startling everyone watching, but Ace just hummed as if in agreement. “It is. Especially when I’m walking down a flight of stairs. Or when I’m doing something in the sails over the open ocean. It’s really funny then.” 

No one was laughing now. Several of the previously laughing individuals now looked a little sick.

In the same light tone Ace continued. “Other fun symptoms of narcolepsy include sleep paralysis, vivid auditory and visual hallucinations and cataplexy. Oh, what is cataplexy? It’s kind of like your whole body falls asleep but your mind is still awake. You just can’t move at all. And these all have to wear off on their own. You can’t wake someone from a sleep attack, and you can’t wake the body from a cataplexy attack. They can last anywhere from a few seconds to a half hour.”

She turned to face Thatch, who was now ghost white, looking absolutely horrified. “I had a cataplexy attack while I was eating once,” she said in a very conversational tone. “My face landed in my bowl of stew. I almost drowned. Not even the feeling of running out of air and slowly drowning is enough to end an attack. It was only the fact that Kal decided to check if I was ready for another bowl and saw me that saved my life. And what’s really, really hilarious,” Ace said, ignoring everyone’s horror, “is when the symptoms start to work together. Nothing quite like being paralyzed and unable to move and having horrifying hallucinations at the same time.”

Thatch looked like he was about to either pass out or cry. No one else looked much better. The Spades were looking at their captain with sympathy. They’d been witness to a lot of what she’d described before Deuce had managed to stabilize her condition. There’d been a point where Ace hadn’t been aloud to go anywhere or do anything without someone else whose only job was to watch over her.

Ace could see that she’d made her point and so she backed off. She turned back to Marco. “So, about those craft things.”

It took several moments before Marco remembered what they’d been discussing before this particular detour. “Oh, uh, Izou likes to sew, Vista and Blamenco do woodcarving, I think there is a knitting circle, so you might want to ask around about that, yoi. There is a lot going on and if you can’t find something, if you ask around you can usually find people willing to start something up.”

Ace nodded. “Do you have any hobbies that need special equipment?” She could see Marco’s blank look of incomprehension and so she elaborated, “I like to do glassblowing,” she stuck her tongue out at some of the surprised looks from the crew at the mention of such a delicate hobby, “but you need special equipment for that.”

Marco nodded slowly. “I don’t think we have anything, yoi,” he said carefully, “but it should be fairly simple to set up an area for that in the forge. Do you have any of the gear, yoi?”

Whatever Ace might have said was interrupted by a shout of “Sail ho!” which was followed by a shout of “Marines!”

“Shit,” Blamenco cursed. “It’s Garp!”

Marco cursed. It was always hard to tell what to expect from a visit with Garp. Sometimes he just wanted to reminisce with a fellow old-timer, but sometimes he wanted to fight. Those times were a pain to deal with and Marco preferred not to deal with that kind of mess after the difficult days they’d had.

Whitebeard had no such reservations and they furled the sails so that Garp would be able to catch up to them easier. As they got closer Marco could tell that something was wrong. Garp was never the friendliest of marines, but he was usually a generally cheerful individual. Right now, though? Garp looked pissed off. Marco turned to Ace quickly. “Get below deck,” he said, not letting her protest. “Garp is dangerous and it looks like he’s in a foul mood, yoi. It’s best if you wait out of the way while Pops deals with this.”

Marco wasn’t sure quite what to make of Ace’s face. He was expecting the stubbornness, but there was also some guilt which was odd, and it looked like she might be conflicted about something. Whatever it was, it could wait until after this was over, he decided as he quickly moved to join Pops. 

Most of the crew was gently ushered off the main deck, leaving only the commanders to face Garp. All too soon Garp was on board the Moby Dick.

“What can I do for you, Garp?” Whitebeard asked congenially. No reason to start things off on a sour note.

Garp scowled at them. “I’m here to take your head, you damn bastard.”

Marco was taken aback. Even when he came by to fight, Garp didn’t usually threaten them. Even Whitebeard looked disturbed. “By what right do you threaten my family?” Whitebeard asked, angered.

This was the wrong thing to say. Garp’s face twitched in rage as he leaped forward, cocking his fist back with a roar. Whitebeard brought his bisento up to block the attack. 

Everyone was preparing for a long and brutal fight when, to everyone’s horror, Ace came running out, cutting in between the two men. They looked on in horror as Ace ran right in front of Garp, throwing out her arms to try and shield Whitebeard.

“Get back here!” Marco shouted. What in the world was that girl thinking? She was strong, no one was arguing that, but did she really think she could take on Garp? Hadn’t the last few months proved to her that she wasn’t strong enough to fight on that level yet?

Whitebeard felt his heart pounding with anxiety as his new daughter threw herself in front of him. If he moved quickly enough, he might be able to grab her and pull her away, but with Garp as angry as he was, would he try to exploit such an opening? Normally Whitebeard would have no concern over Garp attacking his children, but this was no ordinary situation.

Thatch, Izou and Haruta were whispering amongst themselves trying to figure out how they could grab her and get her out of the way without getting her or themselves killed.

Everyone was so busy panicking that it took several moments for anyone to realize that Garp had stopped his attack and was staring at Ace with wide eyes.  
“Gramps, stop,” Ace said firmly, causing everyone to freeze in shock. There was no way she’d just said what they thought she’d said, right?

“You’re alive,” Garp breathed, sounding so profoundly relieved that it took many by surprise. Garp seemed to notice the attention and blushed. He quickly covered it up by blustering, “Where the hell have you been, you shitty brat?”

Ace tentatively lowered her arms, sensing that Garp was done with his quest to end Whitebeard. Now that she didn’t have to worry about Pops being in danger, it was time to get away before Gramps could get his hands on her. “None of your business,” she said, slowly backing away towards the safety of the Whitebeard commanders.

“You damn brat!” Garp yelled, secretly relived to see her in good spirits. “How dare you speak like that to your beloved Grandpa!” 

Ace stuck her tongue out and then took off running, ignoring Garp’s bellow of rage. “You shitty brat! I didn’t raise you to be some disrespectful lawless pirate! I raised you to be a good, strong marine!”

“You didn’t raise me at all!” Ace shouted as she ran across the deck. The Whitebeards were just watching in shock, not interfering as they watched what was happening. 

All of Ace’s running was for nothing as all too soon she was sent crashing to the ground from a way-too familiar pain. “What the hell, Gramps?” Ace shouted, cradling her head. “How the hell did you hit me; I’m made of fire!”

Garp laughed with a huge grin. “There’s no defense from a Fist of Love!”

“Shitty Gramps,” Ace grumbled.

“Garp the Fist is your Grandfather?” Thatch finally yelled in shock.

Ace turned to look at Thatch, confused. “Yeah, why?”

Marco sighed. He was getting such a headache. Whitebeard just started laughing, delighted that his fight was over, and he no longer had to worry about his children being in danger. And it did his heart good to see Ace acting her age, running around with family. It was a bit of a surprise to see that Garp was claiming Gol D Roger’s kid as his grandchild, but this would explain how Ace managed to survive the hunt for Gold D Roger’s kid. Who would ever think to suspect the Marine hero who brought the Pirate King in of harboring such a child? That was just like Roger, Whitebeard thought humorously. 

“Now,” Garp said, narrowing his eyes, “why haven’t you been answering your brother’s calls. You’re worrying that boy to death.”

Ace glared at Garp. “It’s not my fault,” she insisted, “these assholes kidnapped me.”

Garp raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “And is that why you’ve taken that damn mark?”

Ace blushed a little. She folded her arms and looked away.

Garp sighed. “You could have been such a great marine. Instead you had to become a lawless punk.”

“We told you we weren’t going to be no damn marines, Shitty Gramps.”

Thankfully, before Garp could really respond several of the chefs announced that the food was ready. Garp and Ace sat side by side as they made their way through enormous piles of food. Only the commanders had the nerve to sit near the two, the rest of the crew made sure to keep a wide berth. Whitebeard had no problem situating himself right next to the small family. He was enjoying the chance to get to know his daughter better and it was interesting to see a different side to his old friend Garp.

“Hey,” Garp said softly, not attracting a lot of attention. He knew Marco, Whitebeard, and Ace were all paying attention. He focused all of his attention on Whitebeard. “You best take good care of my granddaughter, you hear me? She may be a shitty brat and she never listens when you tell her to do something, but if I ever hear that she got into any kind of trouble and you didn’t do everything you could to help her, I will come after you. Not as a marine, but as a grandfather. And I don’t have to tell you that a man fighting for his family is much more dangerous than a man fighting for ideals.”

Whitebeard had never respected Garp more than he did in that moment. Normally he would be annoyed at someone implying that he was not enough to protect his family, but if anyone understood the danger of being related to the former Pirate King it was Garp. “I don’t need anyone to tell me how to protect my family,” he crumbled. “Ace is my precious daughter, and anyone fool enough to try and mess with my family will suffer my displeasure.”

“Ha!” Garp laughed. “So, tell me, why has my delinquent granddaughter been up to lately?”

The rest of the meal was spent with Whitebeard and Garp trading stories of their favorite hothead. Ace was content to sit back and listen, enjoying the chance to sit peacefully with some of the most important people in her life. The only thing that could make this moment better, Ace thought, was if Luffy could be there too.


	5. The book

Things went back to normal after Garp left. They all had a newfound appreciation for Ace’s stubbornness and determination knowing she’d never given up on her dream of being a pirate even after growing up under Garp the Fist’s attentive eye.

After a week or so they were throwing another party on deck, this time to celebrate Atmos’ birthday. Ace had her book out and was scribbling away, taking the time to laugh and cheer with the people around her.

Marco walked over and though he didn’t try to sneak a peek this time he noticed that instead of a picture, this time the page was covered in words. “What are you working on?” he asked.

Ace glanced up, greeting Marco with a grin. “Just catching up on the last couple of months. A lot has happened, you know.”

Marco tilted his head, confused. “Is that a journal, yoi?”

Ace tensed a little, realizing she’d said more than she really intended to. She sighed. She might as well tell them, it wasn’t exactly a secret, just more of a tender subject.

It was still pretty early in the afternoon so thankfully no one was too drunk just yet which meant a lot of people had started paying attention to their conversation, all eager to learn more about their new sister.

“It’s not a journal,” she said, closing the book and stroking the cover. “I told you before that Luffy and I had a brother named Sabo,” Marco tensed a little, worried he’d overstepped somehow, but Ace continued easily, though she looked a little sad. “We all dreamed of being pirates. For a while we planned on all being on the same crew but then we realized we all wanted to be the captain. None of us were willing to serve under each other which was when we realized we would all be on separate crews. We didn’t let that stop us, though. We made vows to set sail when we turned seventeen and that one day we would all meet up on the Grand Line as captains of our own crews.”

Ace had a far away look in her eyes and a fond smile on her lips. The crew was all listening very attentively, enjoying this softer version of the hothead they already loved so much. “After we made our vows we shared our dreams with each other. Luffy wants to be the Pirate King, I wanted an answer, and Sabo?” she paused slightly before continuing, “Sabo, more than anything else, wanted to be free. He wanted to go wherever he wanted and do anything he wanted. He wanted to see the world. He told us that after he did he would write everything down, all of his adventures. He wasn’t sure if he would try to get the book published or if he’d just share with us.”

Whitebeard smiled softly. He didn’t like the melancholy in Ace’s voice but he liked hearing about happy and peaceful times in the girl’s childhood when she ran around with her brothers.

“When I set sail after I stopped at one of my first islands I saw this book and I thought maybe I could do it. I got this tattoo,” she gestured to her arm, “to keep Sabo’s memory alive and bring him out to sea with us, why couldn’t I try and bring his dream too? I bought the book and I was so excited to get started and then I sat down and I just stared at it for hours.” Ace laughed lightly. “I was never the bookish one. That was Sabo. He was so mouthy and good with words and he would have written the most amazing book ever. All I could think to write was that I found an island and it was cool. I got so frustrated and I just started doodling on the page without meaning to. I liked drawing, it was a good way to calm down when I got angry when I was younger. I started drawing a clearing on the island. When I saw the picture I kind of realized that I can’t write Sabo’s book. I’m not Sabo and I can’t write like him. So I started writing the book like I was talking to Sabo and Luffy, telling them about my adventures. Honestly, this thing is a bit of a mess.” Ace laughed again. “Most of the important places we visit I end up drawing, I go into a lot of detail about the people I met, how I recruited my crew, the things I learn about them, if there are any good restaurants, if I had any good fights and if there were any jerks I beat up. I added my crew’s bounty posters as they joined and every time the bounty went up. This is everything that’s happened since I went out to sea, it’s not how Sabo would have done it, but this isn’t Sabo’s story, it’s mine.”

Marco looked at the book with a great deal more respect and fondness. He’d had no idea it meant so much to the girl. A lot of the crew were staring at it the same way. He reached over and ruffled Ace’s hair, knocking her hat off her head in the process.

Whitebeard looked at his children fondly. “Would you care to share a bit of your story with us, daughter?” he asked.

Ace looked up at Whitebeard in surprise. She saw the warmth and affection in his eyes and blushed, opening the book to near the front. She landed on a sketch. She held the book up for them to look. “This is from one of the first islands we went to after I recruited Smalls. It’s where I started the treasure hunt.”

“Treasure hunt?” Thatch asked, curious.

Ace nodded. “Back when we thought we were all going to be on the same crew we called ourselves the ASL Pirates. Whenever my crew and I spend some time on an island I find a nice place and I carve A and S into the tree. When Luffy becomes King of the Pirates I’m going to give him this book and he’s going to have to find where I hid the carvings so he can add the L.”

Marco raised an eyebrow. That was actually really sweet. 

Several of the crew (mainly led by Thatch) started cooing at the sisterly love, so Ace flipped to a different page closer to the middle of the book. She landed on a page full of a text and she winced a little. “Ah, perhaps not this one.” She muttered. Deuce, curious, leaned over and looked, getting a stormy look on his face when he recognized the island.

Marco was starting to get a little concerned that something bad might have happened, but Ace just glared at Deuce indignantly. “It was not my fault!” she shouted.

It looked like most of the Spades had figured out what she was referring to and started grumbling, crossing their arms and glaring.

“It wasn’t!” she insisted, turning to face Pops and the commanders. “Some people,” she said pointedly, “need to learn that sometimes things just have a way of happening around people and just because it happens around that person does not make it that person’s fault!”

Deuce just grumbled. “Freaking Ds.”

Marco was more curious than concerned at this point. What in the world were they going on about?

Ace saw their confusion and elaborated. “It was right after we entered the New World and we were exploring. We found an island that wasn’t on any of our maps that we had so we decided to explore.” Ace looked at the deck, scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment. “Apparently people in the area made a point of avoiding that island for a reason.”

“And why is that, Captain?” Saber said, voice dripping in discontent.

Ace winced. “There…may have been a local tribe of indigenous people who didn’t really react well towards the outside world. They were a little hostile towards us until I used my devil fruit. That’s when they decided to raise me up as their Great Goddess of Fire and worship me.”

Marco blinked. There was no way he’d just heard what he thought he’d heard. He exchanged bewildered looks with the rest of the crew and knew that it wasn’t a mistake. That apparently wasn’t all as CiCi, the Spade’s tiny shipwright, growled out, “And?”

Another wince. “And they decided the reason I was in a mortal body was that my crew had someone bound my divine essence to mortal flesh and the only way to release me from my fleshy prison was to sacrifice the crew in my honor.”

Marco thought for a moment that his brain might legitimately be broken. Surely Ace was just lying at this point. These things didn’t just happen. Not even to Ds! Teach had been a member of their crew for years and nothing like this had ever happened to him. 

And apparently the tale still wasn’t ever as this time Deuce growled, “And?”

This time Ace turned bright red and yelled at them, “Oh, come on! It’s not my fault they were cannibals!”

“What?” Thatch asked, echoing many people’s sentiments. Marco just rested his head in his hands, trying to stave off the headache. “I don’t even want to know.” He grumbled.

“Gurararara!” Whitebeard laughed. “Never a dull moment, eh Brat?”

Ace just started grumbling under her breath, picking up her book and storming off. Marco didn’t even try to call her back. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear about her past adventures if this was the kind of thing she got up to in her free time.


	6. Story time

Ace bit into her food viciously. The people sitting around her eyed her nervously. They didn’t know it was even possible to eat angrily, but Ace was doing it. No one was quite sure what had made her so angry and she just scowled at anyone who asked her.

Thatch approached the table slowly, holding a large plate of various meats, all cooked and seasoned to perfection. He’d tried to talk to Ace earlier and get her out of her foul mood, but the hothead had almost set his hair on fire. He slid the plate in an open spot on the table and quickly pulled away before Ace had the chance to rip his hand off.  
He retreated to a spot about ten feet away where a handful of crew members were observing the situation. They all jumped out of their skins when a voice came from behind them.

“What are you doing, yoi?”

Marco was staring at them like they were the biggest idiots he’d ever seen.

“Ace is mad,” Thatch said. Haruta and Vista nodded furiously behind him.

Marco paused. “Why?” he asked finally.

“Uh, no one’s quite sure,” Haruta admitted. “I tried asking, but she growled at me.”

Marco raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t believe how ridiculous they were being. It was hard being the only person on the ship with any sense whatsoever. He walked over to the girl, ignoring the warnings from his family and lightly bonked her on the head with his fist.

“Calm down,” he said firmly. Ace glared at him and he reached over and lightly flicked her forehead. “None of that,” he chastised.

For a minute no one dared breathe. That flick had been so unexpected that it took a minute or two to actually process. When it finally did Ace gave Marco a grumpy, disgruntled look. Marco sat next to her on the bench, bumping her playfully with his shoulder, causing her to let out a reluctant huff of laughter.

Thatch’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “No!” he declared dramatically, drawing the attention of anyone who wasn’t already fixated on the situation. “We have been trying to talk to you for over an hour! I brought you food! But all he,” he pointed at Marco accusatorially, “has to do is tell you to calm down and it works! We are not supposed to have favorites!”

Ace blinked at Thatch, bewildered and confused. “You told Haruta she’s your favorite this morning.”

Thatch flushed as Marco and Izou started smirking at him. They all knew that Thatch was jealous that Ace liked Marco better than him. It usually took Marco a little while to warm up to new people, so their close relationship was unusual.

“Why?” Thatch wailed, falling to his knees in defeat. “I cook you delicious food, I help you prank our siblings and still you choose him. I give you fun, he gives you paperwork!”

“But I like Marco,” Ace said, really confused.

Thatch couldn’t tell if Ace was legitimately not realizing that he was teasing or if she was just egging him on. “Choose!” he declared. “Here and now. Who is your favorite brother?”

“Luffy,” she answered instantly.

There was a beat of silence before Marco broke out laughing. Thatch quickly followed suit and so did everyone else.

“Take that Marco,” Thatch snickered.

Marco, who was definitely egging Thatch on, said, “She still likes me better than you.”

“I am a little surprised you two get along so well,” Izou commented. “You don’t really seem to care much for authority figures.”

Ace cocked her head to the side. “I don’t like authority figures that demand respect and obedience without doing anything to earn it. Marco isn’t like that. None of you are.”

That brought everyone up short, not quite sure how to respond. Marco felt a warmth in his chest. He knew Ace respected him and it was nice to know that it was because he’d earned it and not because of any kind of obligation.

“Seriously though,” Thatch said, “there are a lot of us on the ship, you don’t always have to go to Marco. You should try spending more time with everyone. I know Jozu and Curiel have offered to spar with you and Haruta is good at pranks.”

Ace scowled, remembering the reason for her earlier temper. She turned back to her food, ignoring the crew.

“What did I say?” Thatch asked, confused by her reaction.

Marco reached over, nudging the hothead. “Want to tell us what this is about, yoi?”

Ace shrugged and then gave in with a sigh. It was pointless to try and ignore Marco. He was more stubborn than she was and had the patience to wait her out. “It’s the sparring,” she muttered.

Marco blinked, not having expected her to say that. “What about the sparring?”

Ace exploded. “Nobody takes me seriously,” she shouted, several people jumping at the sudden noise. “I just want a good fight, but everyone keeps pulling their punches like they’re afraid I’ll break and if they do get in a half-decent hit they want to stop for the day. It pisses me off!”

Several of the commanders shifted guiltily. Jozu and Blenheim especially. It wasn’t that they didn’t take her seriously, she was just so young and they didn’t want to hurt her.

“Look, Ace,” Marco said slowly, trying to figure out how to calm the temperamental girl, “you used to spar with your brother, Luffy, right?” At Ace’s nod he said, “You went easy on him, right?”

“Absolutely not,” Ace said, bringing him up short.

“I thought you said Luffy was weak,” Thatch said.

“He is,” Ace laughed. “He could barely throw a punch when I met him. And half the time he would accidentally hit himself.”

Izou’s eyebrows furrowed. “He was weak and you didn’t go easy on him?”

“No way,” Ace said, oblivious to the shocked looks from the people around her. “If I’d have gone easy on him he never would have gotten better. Gramps beat the shit out of us and we beat the shit out of each other.”

Marco was appalled. “You could have gotten hurt doing that.”

“We did,” Ace said with a shrug. “Luffy, Sabo and I usually had more bandages on than clothes at any given time. And that was just from each other. Luffy had this habit of getting eaten by giant crocodiles and he’d accidentally send himself flying into the Tiger Lord or fall off a cliff into the ravine.”

Dead silence. “I don’t even know what to say to that, yoi,” Marco said. “Have you never held back in a fight before?” he asked curiously. Was that even possible?

“Only enough to not accidentally kill someone,” Ace said. “I hate having to hold back. You can’t enjoy a fight that way.”

Marco dragged his hand down his face, suddenly exhausted. “I see it now,” he muttered.

“See what?” Ace asked.

“Roger,” he said, being careful not to give too much away. They hadn’t shared Ace’s heritage with the entire crew, and this wasn’t the time to do so. “I had a hard time seeing it before, but now I do. That guy never held back in a fight, not because he was cruel, but because he loved fighting and it just wasn’t any fun if you weren’t going all out.”

Ace did not like being compared to that man. If it weren’t for the fact that the smug bastard would just take the hit like it was nothing, she’d have slugged him right across the face.

Marco could tell that he’d touched a nerve and so he reached over to ruffle her hair as an apology.

Ace tried to glower at him, but she really enjoyed it when he ruffled her hair.

Conversations started back up as people realized the show was over. Ace was mostly left alone so that she could eat in peace.

Thatch was teasing Marco with various bird-related puns, ignoring the way Marco was starting to twitch. A slightly deranged smile was starting to creep across Marco’s face the longer it went on.

Ace saw the smile and laughed a little. Marco turned that smile on her and asked, “Is something funny, yoi?”

Ace laughed again which made Marco twitch and Thatch start to worry about what was about to happen.

“I’m not laughing at you,” she said, “it’s just you remind me so much of Sabo right now.”

Any frustration and irritation Marco had was instantly forgotten. Ace hadn’t mentioned Sabo since the day with the book and no one had asked because no one knew how recent his loss was and they didn’t want to cause Ace any pain.

“How so?” Thatch asked, just as curious.

Ace pointed at Marco. “That’s the face he used to get when he thought Luffy and I were being bigger idiots than normal. He always said he was the only sane one and we didn’t appreciate how much stupid and crazy he put up with by being around us.”

Marco and Thatch burst out laughing. How many times had Marco said something similar?

“Oh man,” Thatch laughed, “older brothers always think they’re so much better than the rest of us, huh?”

“Oh, Sabo wasn’t my older brother,” Ace said casually, “we were the same age. We never told each other our birthdays so he never knew it, but there’s no way he was older than me."

At their raised eyebrows she elaborated. “I was born on January 1st.”

Thatch’s head almost exploded. “But that was last week!” he shouted. Marco was equally dismayed that they missed Ace’s first birthday with the crew.

This time it was Ace’s turn raising her eyebrow. “I know.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Marco asked.

Ace looked genuinely bewildered. “Why would I?”

Thatch looked hurt. “So, we could throw you a birthday party.”

Ace looked surprised. “Oh. I’ve never really…celebrated my birthday. I just use it to keep track of how old I am.”

By this point they’d attracted a lot of attention, including Whitebeard’s.

“What’s the problem, children?” he asked, concerned by the shouting.

Thatch whirled around to face Whitebeard. “Pops,” he shouted, “Ace’s birthday was last week and she didn’t tell us!”

There were several protests from various crew members. Whitebeard focused on Ace. “Is this true?” he asked gently.

“Yeah,” Ace said, starting to get annoyed.

“How come?” Haruta whined.

“Alright, look,” Ace said, “no one celebrated birthdays growing up. Well, I guess Makino might have tried with Luffy, but that didn’t last. We never shared out birthdays. If it weren’t for the fact we all agreed to set sail on our birthdays I don’t think Luffy would even know when his is.”

Marco felt so lost. “You never celebrated a birthday? Why not?”

Ace shifted, starting to feel uncomfortable. “Sabo had a lot of bad memories from his birthdays with his parents. And the bandits barely raised me, they didn’t do extra stuff like birthdays. And then when it was us, well, my mom died giving birth to me, celebrating seems like a pretty shitty thing to do.”

“Hold on,” Marco said, “did you say bandits?”

This grabbed a lot of attention as they realized just what exactly Ace had said.

“Yeah,” Ace said, “Gramps gave me to some mountain bandits when I was a baby and told them to raise me. He dropped Luffy off with them when he was seven.”

“Didn’t he say something about raising you to be a marine?” Jozu asked.

Ace snorted. “He told the bandits to raise us to be marines. Dadan laughed and laughed when my first bounty came out. She thought it was hilarious. They knew we wanted to be pirates and that we had no intention of ever becoming marines.”

Jozu just stared at Ace before deciding he didn’t want to know. It was just too hard trying to follow Garp logic.

Marco could tell they weren’t really getting anywhere on the birthday celebration thing and tried to redirect. “So how old are you now, yoi?”

“18,” Ace answered.

“Holy shit!” Thatch exclaimed amongst the general uproar of surprise from the crew.

“What?” Ace asked.

“You’re just a baby!” Thatch said. “I thought it was just the freckles that made you look so young.” A lot of people were nodding in agreement.

“I am not a baby,” Ace protested loudly, causing Whitebeard to laugh merrily. He enjoyed listening to friendly banter amongst his family.

Marco smirked. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a member who was so young. Maybe this will inspire some of the crew to be more responsible and cut down on the drinking and swearing.”

There were joking (but not really) shouts of “Never!” as people laughed and joined in the gentle teasing.

Ace, like the mature eighteen-year-old she now was, stuck her tongue out at them and headed up to the deck, ignoring the teasing calls to come back.

Marco silently followed Ace up to the deck, toward the stern. He watched Ace sprawl out on the deck, enjoying the warm sun. She really was just like a cat, he thought with amusement.

“Hey,” he said, catching Ace’s attention, “come with me.”

Ace popped up. “Where are we going?” she asked.

Marco smirked. “I heard the nurses telling Pops he’d on strict bed rest for the rest of the day. I’m sure he’d love some company.”

Ace complied happily and followed Marco to their father’s room. Whitebeard seemed pleasantly surprised to see them and quite pleased to hear they would be keeping him company.

“I thought Ace might like to tell us about her brothers more,” Marco said, surprising them both.

“What a wonderful idea,” Whitebeard said, cutting off any protest Ace might have made.

Ace wasn’t really sure where to start. “I grew up with the bandits,” she started, feeling more confident at the encouraging nods, “I was an angry kid who knew that she wasn’t wanted. So, I kind of ran wild. I spent more nights in the forest than I did at the house. I hunted my own food and spent my time exploring.”

Marco and Whitebeard did not like hearing that. They hated the idea of any child ever feeling unwanted, but especially one they both cared so much about.

“I met Sabo when I was five.” All that was before the age of five?! “He told me his parents were dead and he lived in Grey Terminal. He found out about my dream to be a pirate and we teamed up. We started stealing anything that seemed like it might be valuable for our pirate fund. We ruled that mountain. Sabo and I were about even strength wise, crazy fast and Sabo was good at talking circles around people. People all over the island cursed our names.” Ace looked unbearably fond.

Marco and Whitebeard smiled. These were the kinds of stories they liked hearing. They like the idea of Ace as a tiny terror robbing unsuspecting townspeople blind.

“We ran around together for a couple years until Gramps dropped Luffy on us. Sabo was a great friend, but he was just as angry as I was at the world. Luffy tried to cling to me at first, but I didn’t want anything to do with him. I was…harsh,” she winced. “When he said I tried to kill him he wasn’t exactly wrong. Sabo and I grew up fighting and running around and it didn’t occur to me that other kids wouldn’t be as strong. Luffy ate the gum-gum fruit,” she said to their surprise, “and he is incredibly stubborn. Any other kid would have died. I wasn’t trying to kill him, but easily could have and I don’t know that I would have cared.” Her voice was quiet.

They were surprised to hear they’d had such a rocky start. Luffy clearly loved his big sister and it was strange to hear that Ace might have killed him and they’d never have known each other.

Ace shook herself out of the dark mood. “It was a little rocky at first when Luffy joined the group. He was a crybaby and so weak, but thought he was so tough.” Ace smirked. “It drove him crazy that he couldn’t beat us in a fight. Luffy and I would argue, and Sabo would get between us. He always took Luffy’s side, he was too soft on him,” she grumbled good-naturedly.

“Things changed when Luffy joined us. Luffy is so stupidly happy all the time and he makes you happy. And he can really piss you off, but you just can’t stay mad at him. It was after we realized we were going to be on different ships that we all decided to swear brotherhood. I’d heard that when men shared a cup of sake they became brothers, so I stole a bottle and we had our toast.”

Marco smiled. There was just something so inherently Whitebeard about declaring brotherhood rather than friends forever.

“When Luffy joined the group we brought Sabo to live with us. Dadan was furious,” Ace laughed mischievously. “Sabo didn’t help with his shitty manners.” Ace laughed at the questioning looks. “Sabo’s parents were nobles,” she revealed to their shock, “he hated being one of them and so he ran away. But he still used big words and proper language and manners. He knew full well how to be polite, but he also liked pissing people off. He told her she was a real man amongst men and to please look after him. He also farted a few times instead of answering questions.

Whitebeard was cracking up. That cheeky brat. He’d have quite liked to meet his daughter’s brother. Marco just shook his head, amused despite himself.

“It wasn’t long after that that we moved out. Gramps came to visit and said if we were going to behave like criminals he was going to treat us like criminals. So, I decided it was time we struck out on our own. We all knew how to take care of ourselves by that point, so we knew we’d be fine.”

“How old were you when you all moved out?” Marco had the distinct feeling he was not going to like the answer.

“Sabo and I were ten, Luffy was seven.” He was right, he didn’t like the answer. He exchanged a look with Whitebeard who was no more pleased than he was by the answer.

“We built a house in the trees and we lived there. We built a little crow’s nest and we’d play pirate. We’d get our supplies from Grey Terminal, we hunted for food and we trained. We limited ourselves to one hundred fights a day.” Ace seemed lost in her memories, so Marco tried to nudge her along.

They spent the rest of the day listening to Ace recounting stories of her childhood. It was far more harrowing than either of them would have liked, but it was worth it to see the smile on her face. Ace didn’t so much as hint as to when Sabo had died, and they weren’t about to go poking and risk this bonding.


End file.
